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IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup of Main Events 52 for West Africa covering the period (Friday-Thursday) 05 June - 11 June 1998
NIGERIA: Abacha dies
Sani Abacha, the Nigerian army general who seized power after annulling the 1993 general election and jailing its presumed winner, Chief Moshood Abiola, died of a heart attack on Monday. Within 24 hours after the media announcements of his death, the defence chief, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, was sworn in as head of state.
According to the BBC, state radio quoted local news reports as saying Nigerians celebrated in streets across the country at the news of his death. Abacha, who was 54, had made few public appearances since greeting Pope John Paul II in March, the BBC said. Last week, he also failed to attend a rally held to welcome him on an official visit to the commercial capital, Lagos.
Calls for return to democracy
As events unfolded in Nigeria during the week, African leaders, Western governments and Nigerian opposition groups called on Abubakar to release political prisoners and use the opportunity to restore democracy. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan telephoned Abubakar on Wednesday and encouraged him "to proceed with a peaceful and democratic transition to civilian rule," his spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said. He said Annan also told him, "that he and the United Nations would be willing to assist Nigeria in this process".
African diplomats told IRIN on Tuesday that Abacha's death had left a power vaccuum and that they considered Abubakar an interim leader. In his first nationwide broadcast, Abubakar pledged to implement Abacha's promised transition to democracy.
The 'Post Express' newspaper noted in an editorial on Thursday it was "to the credit" of the military that they had appointed Abubakar so quickly after Abacha's death.
"The best the military can do for this country now is to rally itself together as a national institution and prosecute the will of the people of this country," the editorial said. "Nigerians have made it abundantly clear that they do not want any more military rule. And history, including our political history, has demonstrated that the military cannot bring democracy to our people."
Nigeria will stick to OPEC decision
Last Friday, the Nigerian government announced it would abide by any OPEC measure taken to stabilise international crude oil prices, AFP reported. But a petroleum official said Nigeria would still decide whether to follow Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela in reducing its OPEC production quota.
Nigeria is OPEC's fifth biggest producer and earns 90 percent of its foreign exchange from crude oil.
GUINEA BISSAU: Military rebellion
Rebel troops attacked army headquarters in Guinea Bissau's capital, Bissau, early on Sunday morning after President Joao Bernardo Vieira removed the armed forces chief of staff, General Ansumane Mane, news reports said.
In a showdown which lasted through the week, hundreds of Portuguese and other foreigners were evacuated from the country in a maritime rescue operation during a brief ceasefire early on Thursday morning.
The trouble broke out after General Humberto Gomes replaced Mane on Saturday following recent allegations he was involved in trafficking weapons to separatists in Senegal's southern province of Casamance.
Vieira, whom news reports said was forced to cancel his attendance at the OAU summit this week, had earlier vowed on national radio that he would crush the rebellion. Media reports said he also accused opposition parties of being behind the mutiny and said its defeat was only a matter of time.
But the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, carried an interview
with Mane in which he called on Vieira to resign: "Mane
said that the government did not control the situation
in the capital, and demanded President Vieira and his
executive resign to spare the country bloodshed,"
the Lusa dispatch said. "Mane said that his forces
had no long-term political ambitions and called for
free and transparent elections in July."
Mane also said in the Lusa interview he was "on
the verge" of ending Vieira's 18-year rule over
the former Portuguese colony. Only the risk of "heavy
casualties" had stopped him overrunning the Bissau
city centre.
As attempts aimed at mediating an end to the conflict abated on Thursday, media reports said up to 40 people had died in the fighting so far.
SIERRA LEONE: Rebels set village ablaze
Rebel fighters loyal to the ousted military junta last week killed several people and sent hundreds more fleeing into the bush when they attacked a village just 50 km northeast of the capital, Freetown, AFP reported.
It said that in the attack, the village of Masimra had been burned to the ground, and that many of those trying to escape had drowned in a nearby river. In what Amnesty International has described as some of the worst atrocities of their kind in Africa, the rebels have systematically amputated limbs and mutilated many of their victims.
ECOMOG task difficult
The Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG, which restored the elected civilian government to power in February, in the meantime, has stepped up efforts this week to regain control of areas beyond Freetown. But the PANA news agency said its efforts were being slowed down by heavy rains.
It quoted the ECOMOG commander, Major General Timothy Shelpidi, as saying his forces had "liberated" 80 percent of the country and were pushing "relentlessly" to control the remainder. Shelpidi, however, appealed to the international community for vehicles, helicopters, fuel and spare parts to help complete the task.
United Nations assistance
In New York this week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recommended the establishment of a UN peacekeeping mission for Sierra Leone comprising an unarmed military group of about 70 members. The force would be deployed for about six months to help ECOMOG disarm rebel fighters.
His announcement coincided with a three-day visit to Sierra Leone by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
South Africa establishes diplomatic ties
South Africa will establish full diplomatic relations with Sierra Leone's restored civilian government, a South African official told IRIN this week. He said South Africa would provide Sierra Leone with "major aid" as a gesture of its commitment to democracy in Sierra Leone.
GHANA: Rawlings picks successor
Ghana's head of state, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, declared his support on Saturday for Vice-President JEA Mills to succeed him when his second and final term of office ends in the year 2000, PANA reported. Addressing a rally of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Rawlings effectively ended speculation his wife, Nana Konadu, might succeed him. Rawlings urged party members to support Mills, whom he described as "intelligent, hard-working and a man of integrity".
Mills, a tax law professor and technocrat, was a surprise running mate for Rawlings in 1996.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Graves ready
Amnesty International said last Friday it had learned that the graves for 15 people sentenced to death for treason had already been dug. In a clemency appeal to the president of Equatorial Guinea, Obiang Nguema Mbagoso, Amnesty secretary general Pierre Sane said: "Other detainees were asked to dig the graves for those present in court on the same day of the sentence and a firing squad had already prepared to shoot them on the beach, near the prison where they are detained." Although President Nguema had suspended the executions at the "very last minute", no one knew how long the suspension would last.
The treason charges arose from separatist attacks on the island of Bioko in January, in which several members of the security forces were killed.
By the end of the week with no fresh developments, AFP quoted the Spanish foreign minister, Abel Matutes, as saying that European and American diplomats were engaged in "discreet diplomacy" for clemency.
GUINEA: Opposition leader gets two-month gaol sentence
A court in the Guinean capital, Conakry, sentenced the leader of the opposition l'Union pour la Nouvelle Republique (UNR), Mamadou Ba, on Monday to two months imprisonment for "inciting racial hatred and violence", AFP reported.
Ba was among some 60 people arrested in March following clashes between security forces and residents in Kaporo, a suburb in the north of Conakry, in which nine people were killed and some 40 injured. Two other UNR deputies, Mamadou Barry and Thierno Ousmane Diallo, were sentenced to five months' gaol and fines of one million Guinea Francs (US$ 1,000) each.
MALI: Civil disobedience campaign
A coalition of opposition parties in Mali this week called for a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience and a boycott of municipal elections scheduled for 21 June, AFP reported. It quoted Coguel Maiga, leader of the Mouvement Patriotique pour le Renouveau (MPR), as saying opposition leaders were however still open to talks with the government.
SAO TOME E PRINCIPE: Oil find
A US exploration company announced this week that Sao Tome e Principe had sufficient oil to make it a second Nigeria or Gabon, AFP reported. But Norreen Wilson of Environmental Remediation Holding Corporation (ERHC) said the archipelago would still have to wait 18 - 24 months before exploitation of its reserves could start.
OAU SUMMIT: Annual meeting overshadowed by crisis
The death of Abacha in Nigeria, the rebellion in Guinea Bissau and a border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea this week largely overshadowed the 34th annual summit of the OAU in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Media reports said the 29 leaders of the OAU's 54 nations had attended the summit and agreed to send a high-level delegation to mediate between Asmara and Addis Ababa. But the reports added, they were able to do little more than urge the Nigerian leadership to restore democracy and call for a ceasefire in Guinea Bissau.
Blaise Compaore, president of Burkina Faso, succeeded President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as the new OAU chairman. For Nelson Mandela, the occasion marked his last formal address to OAU leaders as South African president.
African yellow fever conference
In a separate development, PANA news agency reported on Wednesday that health experts from most OAU countries, the UN and Western governments will hold an international seminar aimed at tackling the resurgence in Africa of the disease yellow fever. The seminar will be held in Dakar, Senegal, 25-27 June.
Abidjan, 12 June 1998 11:10 gmt
[ends]
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha..unon.org. Mailing list: irin-wa-weekly]
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 11:09:02 +0000 (GMT) Subject: IRIN-West Africa Weekly Roundup 52, 98.6.12 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980612110547.24182A-p://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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